William D. Blake

William Delaney Blake (13 October 1896-16 Nvoember 1971) was a US Army Rangers colonel and the commander of the US 2nd Ranger Battalion from 1944 to 1945 during the closing stages of World War II.

Biography
William Delaney Blake was born on 13 October 1896 in King City, California, and he attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York from 1914 to 1918, serving in the US Army during World War I. Blake would serve in the US Army Rangers and serve in the general staff during the Interwar period, becoming a Lieutenant in 1932, a Captain in 1939, a Major in 1942, and a Colonel in 1944. Blake assumed command of the US 2nd Ranger Battalion in preparation for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. He led the battalion during the liberation of France from Nazi Germany in the summer of 1944, and he personally oversaw the crossing of the Rhine River at Wallendar in March 1945. After the crossing of the Rhine, Blake led the battalion during the invasion of Germany and the conquest of the heart of the Reich, and he was mustered out of service upon the war's end in 1945. Blake became a historian after the war, and he died in Fresno in 1971.